The present invention generally relates to systems that collect, concentrate, collimate, and distribute sunlight, and more particularly to such systems which utilize a series of reflectors that track the sun to optimize its effects.
The prior art contains numerous inventions for collecting beam sunlight and transporting it to the interior of a building. These inventions have a number of system components, or stages, in common. To facilitate a comparison of the present invention with the prior art, these stages are described below.
The collection stage consists of optical hardware that brings sunlight from the exterior to an aperture in the envelope of a building.
The conditioning stage consists of optical processing elements that interface the radiant output of the collection stage to subsequent stages. For example, the ultraviolet and infrared portions of the spectrum may be removed at the conditioning stage leaving the visible portion for illumination. The removed portion of the spectrum may be re-directed towards one or more thermal applications inside a building.
The distribution stage brings radiant flux from any number of collection stages to one or more destinations inside a building. For lighting applications, this stage introduces a measure of flexibility for the placement of luminaires.
An outlet stage is where radiant flux exits the distribution stage for a given application. For example, this stage may include one or more varieties of luminaires or fixtures comprised of optical elements for directing the final entry of light into a building. Solar illumination may be integrated with electric lighting at the outlet stage. The outlet stage may open into a thermal appliance such as a water heater or oven.
It is a principal object and advantage of the present invention to provide a radiant energy system that efficiently and effectively collects and conditions solar or lunar flux for distribution inside a building.
It is a further object and advantage of the present invention to provide a solar collection system that utilizes a minimum number of mirrors to effectively and automatically track the sun, thereby minimizing losses due to absorption and scattering at the collection surfaces.
It is another object and advantage of the present invention to provide a radiant energy system that collimates collected sunlight and reduces its cross-sectional area to match the cross-sectional area of the system's distribution stage, thereby minimizing losses and chromatic aberration.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will in part be obvious, and in part appear hereinafter.